Man Gets Life Term, But Acquittal in Other Md. Death Is Disputed

A Prince George's County man was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for one slaying, but prosecutors believe he escaped punishment in another after concocting a false alibi.

Authorities said Donnell L. Hunter admitted in a secretly recorded jail conversation that he was the gunman in a 2006 slaying in Temple Hills and boasted that relatives helped him with a bogus alibi. By then, he had been acquitted by a jury. He cannot be retried.

But Hunter, 38, was subsequently convicted of murder in a 2005 killing at a Suitland nightclub and was sentenced yesterday to life without the possibility of parole.

"This man is a stone-cold killer," State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said, "and he's 'gamed' the system for the last time."

Late in 2007, a jury took 40 minutes to acquit Hunter in the fatal shooting of Andre White, 28, and the wounding of Dennis Poe outside a Temple Hills apartment complex.

Three months later, Hunter was in the county jail awaiting trial in the 2005 slaying of Shawn Hodges, 33. As prosecutors secretly recorded the conversation, Hunter described the Temple Hills shootings.

"My intention was to kill him," Hunter, known as "Fat Rat," says of Poe, "but I killed his friend because he intervened."

Circuit Court Judge Ronald D. Schiff yesterday described Hunter's remarks about the Temple Hills shootings as "absolutely chilling."

According to prosecutors, Hunter's niece was involved in a dispute with Poe on Aug. 13, 2006. Hunter and Poe argued, prosecutors alleged. White, a friend of Poe's, tried to defuse the argument. Hunter pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired, striking White in the chest and Poe in the leg.

"Boom, just like that, walked straight to them," Hunter says in a transcript of the conversations. "Hit him right in the chest. His head hang just like this."

Prosecutors said Hunter was seen fleeing the scene in his mother-in-law's silver Hyundai. At the trial, his sister Paulette Hunter testified that her boyfriend was driving the car that night.

In the jail transcript, Hunter says his sister testified for him that a fictitious boyfriend drove the Hyundai. "My sister got up there and told on her boyfriend that never exists. That my sister's made-up boyfriend," Hunter said.